


That Kind of Dynamic

by lol-phan-af (lol_phan_af)



Series: retrouvaille [11]
Category: Hamilton - Miranda
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Fluff, M/M, Marriage Proposal, Multi, Sleepovers, kind of
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-17
Updated: 2017-12-17
Packaged: 2019-02-16 07:28:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,020
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13049361
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lol_phan_af/pseuds/lol-phan-af
Summary: "Do you wanna marry me, maybe?"Hercules choked. "What?""Not now!" John shouted, moving away. "In the future.""Okay!" Hercules blurted, then covered his mouth with his hands."What?"





	That Kind of Dynamic

Sitting across from Lafayette and Alex at lunch, trying to figure out how to ask them if him and John could live in their house for the weekend while their apartment gets exterminated is not the pathway Hercules wanted to go down, but here he was. John bit his nails next to him, not even paying attention to the conversation, only in getting his down to the cuticle. God, if Hercules didn't love him so much, he'd think he was kind of gross.   
  
"I'm just _saying_ , that if we got a leather couch, who would it hurt?" Lafayette questioned, taking a bite of their french toast.   
  
Alex threw his hands in the air. "Me! It would hurt me! I wear pants a solid ten percent of the time in our house! A leather couch would kill! Me!" He rattled his hands against the tables to illustrate his point. Lafayette leaned back in their chair.   
  
"Fair." They looked away from Alex, a rarity, and over to the two of them. "You said you had to talk to us about something?"   
  
John stopped biting his nails. "We have mice in our apartment," he admitted, "and, uh, according to the exterminator, in order to get them _out_ of our apartment, we can't be there when they're _exterminating_." He made some vague hand gestures as Alex and Lafayette stared at them, then glanced at each other, then back at them, eerie smiles that only they could make look inviting.   
  
"Are you asking if you can stay with us for the weekend?" Alex gripped Lafayette hand.   
  
Hercules cleared his throat. "If we were, would you let us?"   
  
"Of course!" Lafayette squeaked. "This is going to be so fun!"   
  
Hercules loved Lafayette and Alex, he really did, but spending the week with them gave him more worries than he should be allowed for one man.   
  
Alex and Lafayette were stuck in the muddy, sappy place their relationship existed in, where they could hang off one another at all times and if Alex _happened_ to give Lafayette a hickey in the middle of a cafe for no other reason than he wanted to, Lafayette would think nothing of it. They were always touching in the time they spent together, glued at the hip. Alex even talked about it sometimes, about how, if he could, he _would_ glue him and Lafayette together, because every second they spent apart felt like hell on earth.   
  
Hercules respected that, but he didn't share in that want to _always_ be with your significant other.  
  
He loved John more than anything else, but they both enjoyed the time apart from one another where they could be alone. John liked to paint alone, Hercules liked to work alone, and sometimes they prefered to do things _without_ each other. John liked watching horror movies in the living room until three in the morning and Hercules liked to binge watch Parks and Rec over and over while he fell asleep at midnight. It was how they worked, and he wouldn't trade it for the world.   
  
"How did you get mice in your apartment anyway?" Alex asked in the middle of Lafayette listing things they could do together, ranging from having a dance party in their living room to seeing which one of them could eat as much pasta as God would physically allow them. Alex tried to push his glasses up, only to realize his and Lafayette's fingers were still intertwined and left him incapable of doing so. He pushed his glasses up with his other hand, then leaned against Lafayette.   
  
John began to answer with the story of him almost burning the house down, but Hercules phased out, still thinking.   
  
He loved the dynamic him and John had, thought it made them who they were. Their time apart made their time together so much better, when he managed to convince John to watch the Vampire Diaries and when John pulled Hercules on top of him on the floor and just had him lay there for hours, comfortable in the almost crushing weight pressing on him. Making out in their kitchen and going on makeshift dates to ice cream shops just because.   
  
He didn't want that to change, he valued their relationship _so_ much, and he felt concerned that being in Alex's and Lafayette's close quarters would put the same thoughts and fears about them into John's head as they floated through his own.   
  
"You don't, you don't wish we were more like Lafayette and Alex, do you?" Hercules whispered, combing his hands through John's hair. John listened to the steady beat of Hercules' heart before lifting his head to face him.   
  
"What do you mean?"   
  
"Well, you know how they are. They're always together, kind of on top of each other most times, always, y'know-" Hercules gesticulated with his hands. John nodded, sort of understood.   
  
"Yeah, they do have a very _charged_ relationship, always kind of-"  
  
"Yeah." He focused his eyes on John's forehead, refusing to look him in the eyes.   
  
John rolled off of him to lie in bed beside him. "The answer is no. I don't want to be like them." He took Hercules' hand. "I love you, and I love what we're doing now, I don't see the need to change it." John kissed his knuckles.  
  
"Me too. I wanted to bring it up, though, because we're about to spend a whole weekend with them, and I like knowing we're going to be okay." 

"We will be," John assured, leaning up and kissing him. "Now, we have to either pack or sleep. If we pack now, we won't have to panic tomorrow, but if we sleep, we get to sleep."    
  
"Let's sleep," Hercules said to John, who was already turning to switch the lamp off.    
  
"That's what I thought. Goodnight, Hercules. I love you."   
  
Hercules pulled John closer. "I love you too."    
  
\---   
  
"Do you think we're too close as a couple? Like, do you think we need to chill out a little?"   
  
Lafayette kept braiding Alex's soaking wet hair, sliding further down in the bath behind him. Alex yelled as he slid almost underwater as a result of Lafayette moving, feet slamming against the bottom of the tub to steady him.    
  
They kissed his shoulder. "What do you mean?"   
  
"John and Hercules do stuff apart, like, all the time. Is that what we're  _ supposed  _ to be like? People usually come out of the honeymoon phase after a while. Is it weird that we haven't?"   
  
"I don't think," Lafayette told him, letting go of the braid and separating his hair to fall loose. "Every relationship works differently. Our relationship is the kind where we both are disgusting saps and the world either deals with it or doesn't mention that we're gross. That's who we are. At least, that's who I thought we were? Are you okay?"    
  
"Yeah! Yeah. I love you, and this, and us, I was just wondering. I was a little afraid we weren't where we should be, or where other people thought we should be, so I just wanted to know if you thought the same thing I did. You know me, though, I'm always worried."    
  
"I know. My little anxious babe." Lafayette hugged him, sighing into the warmth of Alex's skin, content to stay silent for a moment. The water, turned pink from the bath bomb Alex put in it, grew colder the longer they stayed, but neither Lafayette nor Alex wanted to leave.    
  
"I'm really excited for John and Hercules to stay over," Lafayette told them, trying to stay awake so they would have the time to get out and get dressed to sleep.    
  
Alex hummed, laughing at how Lafayette's voice tickled. "Me too. Can we do something this weekend? I wanna do something this weekend." He leaned back to look at Lafayette, batting his eyelashes in a way he knew they wouldn't resist.    
  
"Mm, going out costs money, though."   
  
"Let's stay in."    
  
"I could always-"   
  
"No, you're not allowed to pay for me. I'll kill you."   
  
Alex leaned bodily on Lafayette as they sat up to drain the tub, resisting leaving their lukewarm, candlelit bathroom. "Would you really?"   
  
"Probably not. I wouldn't hesitate to eat all of your leftovers and get you annoyed with me."    
  
They stood up together, cold air hitting them and making them shiver. Alex curled closer into Lafayette's chest.    
  
"You could never annoy me. I love you," they said. Alex wrapped his arms around their waist.    
  
"I love you too. Can we go to bed now?"   
  
"Of course."   
  
Alex stood in front Lafayette as they put his engagement ring around his neck, fastening the clasp of the chain as he leaned on them. He fiddled with the loose thread at the edge of his towel while Lafayette did their nightly hair routine before they lead him out of the bathroom and across the hall to their room.    
  
"Did we drain the bathtub?" Alex sat on their bed, slumping. Lafayette loved when he was like this, sleepy and soft, when everything was quiet and peaceful in their house. It made everything seem real, both of them stripped down to their most vulnerable and left with nothing but love for each other. It meant something.    
  
"Yes," Lafayette replied, taking two sweaters out from their dresser and walking over to Alex. "You got upset because it was the last pink bath bomb you had."    
  
"Right."   
  
They went back to him and stood between his legs, kissing him sighing against his lips. Alex reached up and undid the towel wrapped around his hair and threw it in the direction of the hamper. Lafayette broke away and handed him one of the sweaters, putting on the other one as he did. Alex pulled Lafayette down onto the bed and pulled up the comforter, covering them both before he cuddled into their side, falling asleep in what felt like seconds.    
  
\---   
  
Alex and Lafayette's apartment is pretty much how Hercules would expect it to be now that they settled into it. Pictures of each other everywhere, throw pillows and blankets littering any and all available surfaces, a lot of stylish furniture paired with decor that could  _ only  _ have been picked out by Alex. Their Christmas tree stood in the corner still, glittery baubles dangling from the branches, lights strung across the windows.    
  
"Why is your tree still up in January?" John asked, looking up at the thing, poking one of the sparkly beach Santas they had. Him and Hercules had only just moved in to John's new apartment, so they didn't bother with a tree, opened Christmas presents in their living room before they left each other and went home, Hercules making sure to send as many text messages as he could to distract John from his father, John sending messages back to assure him he was okay.    
  
"It's cute, why would we take it down? Especially considering it's still winter, we have time." Alex squinted at him, then turned back to Hercules, who tried to explain to him why he kept messing up the scarf he tried to knit. The answer was, of course, that Alex just wasn't  _ good  _ at knitting, but Hercules would never tell him that.    
  
"Fair."   
  
Lafayette screamed from the second floor, rushing from the bedroom down to the kitchen, drawing the attention of the three of them and announcing, "I'm so excited you're here!"   
  
"We're excited to be here," Hercules said, hands tangled in yarn as Alex got more confused.    
  
"I don't know what your plans are for the weekend, but I was hoping we could do something either tonight or tomorrow, like go out somewhere or something, my treat. Alex wants to have a scrabble tournament, which I think is terrifying, but I love him so I guess I agreed."    
  
"Hey!" Alex called from the living room. "You said you'd love to have a scrabble tournament with me!"    
  
"I was, like, dead asleep at that point Alex, you can't even hold me to that." They searched through the cabinets and pulled out a box of pasta, beaming.    
  
"Unbelievable," Alex muttered. "I knit them whatever this is, and they respond by not even being  _ excited _ about my scrabble tournament? I should sue." His hand came up to touch where his ring hung from the chain as he gave up and handed the tangled mass of yarn to Hercules, who laughed and worked to undo it. Alex watched, trying to mimic his movements, but ended up making it worse.   
  
John sat down next to him, leaning his head on Hercules' shoulder and nuzzling into his shirt. He didn't seem to mind that Hercules wouldn't sit still, as long as he was able to leech his warmth and try and rest before Lafayette made dinner. Hercules kissed his forehead, ignoring Alex's cooing in favor of actually looking at his boyfriend, half asleep on him. God, he was so beautiful. Hercules was so lucky to have him.    
  
"Alex, can you help me here?" Lafayette had a cookbook in one hand and a jar of alfredo sauce in the other, hair tied up hastily in a bun. If Hercules had to pick a word to describe them, it would be  _ distressed _ .    
  
"Of course!" Alex stood and joined them in making dinner, kissing them before Lafayette started whispering, pointing to certain things and trying to show how they made sense in relation to the other ingredients. Alex listened as Lafayette leaned their chin on his shoulder, arms coming up to wrap around his waist.   
  
"I'm so fucking  _ tired _ ," John whined, lying down on the couch, squishing himself onto two of the cushions so his head could lie on Hercules' lap.    
  
"Maybe you shouldn't've gone jogging for three hours this morning when you could've been lying in bed with me, then."    
  
" _ Whatever _ ," he muttered. Hercules smiled, heart swelling in his chest at how much love he felt for John in that moment. He set the bundle of yarn down on the end table by the couch and maneuvered them so John curled into his chest while he laid behind him, letting them rest for a bit before dinner was ready.    
  
Alex threw more lettuce into the salad bowl and looked at Hercules and John in the living room. Lafayette stood behind him, stirring the pasta as the water bubbled, humming Christmas songs still in their head even after New Years.    
  
"They're so cute," he remarked.    
  
"Who?" Lafayette asked, half paying attention to Alex, tapping the wooden spoon against the edge of the saucepan and setting it in the spoon holder. Alex reached back and pulled Lafayette's sleeve, turning them around and making them face the same direction.    
  
John looked tiny in Hercules' arms, hands squeezed underneath Hercules biceps to wrap around his body, intertwining his fingers together to link behind him. Hercules smiled in his sleep, moving so John's head tucked into his shoulder, pushing them closer. It was too cute to even look at, too private for them to see. They blushed and looked away.    
  
"Stop, let them be."    
  
Alex nodded, seemed to agree that this wasn't meant for them to look at. He leaned up and kissed Lafayette before continuing on the salad, throwing in too much chopped cucumber before going to dice the tomatoes. Lafayette looked back to John and Hercules, then to Alex.    
  
The baby hairs that fell out of his bun framed his face, his eyebrows furrowed, laser focused on the task at hand. He didn't seem to notice Lafayette staring at him, at the little birthmark on his ear, the soft curve of his jaw and the arch of his lips. His glasses slipped down his nose, the chain around his neck glinting in the light as it led underneath his sweater.    
  
They were going to marry him, one day, and every time they thought about it, they loved him a little more than they thought possible before.    
  
"Can you drain the pasta, please?" Alex requested, looking over at them and tossing little cubes of tomato into the salad with the lettuce and cucumber. Lafayette, drawn out of their thoughts, nodded silently.    
  
"Yeah, of course," they muttered, moving to turn away. Alex caught their arm before they could.   
  
"Are you okay?"   
  
"Yeah, I just love you a lot." They kissed his forehead. "I was staring at you, and how beautiful you are, and I got caught up in my thoughts, sorry. I'll go get the pasta now."   
  
Alex grinned. "I love you too."    
  
Alex woke John and Hercules up once everything was ready, pulling them toward the table and ignoring their groaning and requests for five more minutes of sleep. Hercules was strong, but he was no match to Alex when there was alfredo waiting not ten feet away. His feet slid as he resisted Alex and pulled John closer to weigh him down. Lafayette stared, half amused, half worried that Hercules' arm was going to rip clean off his body.    
  
"Please be careful!" Lafayette yelled, as Hercules gave up and Alex almost slammed to the ground. Alex screamed, but Hercules caught him, finally surrendering and joining the table like he should've just done in the first place.    
  
"I almost  _ died _ ," Alex said, standing next to Lafayette. They snorted and kissed his temple.    
  
"Let's eat."    
  
John stared down at the table. "Was your plan to make an Olive Garden themed meal, because-"   
  
"Oh my  _ God! _ " Alex yelled.    
  
"How didn't we notice?" Lafayette whispered.    
  
"Are we  _ that  _ in love with Olive Garden that we-?"   
  
"I think you broke them," Hercules muttered into John's ear.    
  
"Oh god."   
  
Dinner was beautiful, in Hercules' opinion, except for the tomatoes in the salad, which John was more than happy to pick off of his plate and eat himself. Alex talked a majority of the time, as per usual, about how happy he was to have them here. Lafayette ate and watched Alex, fond, as they listened to him speak. 

A lot of their relationship seemed to be Alex talking and Lafayette listening. Hercules kind of liked it. He knew that, if he could, he would listen to John talk all day, so the fact that Lafayette and Alex did that and had that kind of dynamic made Hercules happy that his best friends were so comfortable with each other.    
  
"Scrabble! Scrabble! Scrabble!" Alex chanted as Lafayette and Hercules finished washing the dishes, jumping up and down. John searched for the game in the closet, trying and failing to see what was on the top shelf.    
  
"You're going to get the neighbors to call the police on us again," Lafayette warned, pinching Alex's side with no intent to hurt him. Alex yelped and then curled away, giggling.    
  
"They moved out," he retorted, scrunching his nose up and moving John out of the way. He jumped up, snatching the Scrabble box from the tippy top of the pile and kicking the closet door shut behind him, rattling the photos on the wall.    
  
Lafayette grinned. "I wonder why."   
  
\---   
  
Alex woke up as Lafayette set him down on their bed, the blankets already pulled back so he could lay under them. They didn't notice him yet, taking his glasses and plugging his phone in, setting both of them on Alex's nightstand before leaving the room and going into the bathroom. Alex kicked off his pants and pulled the blankets up around him, waiting until Lafayette came back to get comfortable.     
  
"Did I wake you up?" Lafayette asked, coming back into the room, shirtless now, and shutting the door.    
  
"Not really. When did I fall asleep?"    
  
Lafayette lifted the blankets up and crawled into bed next to Alex. "After you obliterated us in Scrabble and made us watch Love Actually."   
  
"I love that movie," Alex mumbled, cuddling next to Lafayette. His hair smelled like coconuts, Lafayette noticed as their eyes slipped shut.    
  
"I know. You and my grandmother watched it while I died."    
  
"It's a classic, hush."    
  
They laid in silence for a moment before Alex's phone went off. He groaned and rolled to check it, squinting at the bright light that blinded even Lafayette from where they were. Alex huffed and rolled back into their side.    
  
"I have work and the  _ fucking  _ restaurant tomorrow," he explained, burying his face into Lafayette's side.    
  
"Don't you have to go the Herald early, too?"   
  
Alex nodded. "I go right from one to the other. I won't be home until eight." He looked up. "I was so excited to spend the afternoon with you, John, and Hercules, though."    
  
"You have to go to work."   
  
"Doesn't mean I have to be okay with it," he muttered. Lafayette chuckled and pulled Alex even closer. He grumbled, so cute, and curled up into a ball in their arms.    
  
"I love you," they said, combing through his hair before rubbing his back.    
  
"I love you too, but we have to sleep now. I have to get up at like  _ five _ tomorrow."    
  
Lafayette turned on their side and pulled Alex so they were spooning him. "Goodnight, love."   
  
Alex hummed. "Goodnight."   
  
\---   
  
The first thing Hercules heard as he woke up was the rustling of paper and the quiet grind of chewing. He sat up, John rolling away from him to the other side of the pull out couch mattress. He took the sheets with him, leaving Hercules freezing in the January cold.    
  
"Good morning," Alex greeted, standing in the kitchen and eating a granola bar, scrolling through something on his phone. His clothes were business casual, if Hercules had to describe it. His tie was on the counter next to a small bag, definitely Lafayette's, judging by the  _ L _ monogrammed on the front.     
  
"Hey. Why are you up?"    
  
"I have work at the newspaper, then work at the restaurant right after. I wanted one of you to wake up before I left though, because Lafayette is gonna come down soon, and I want you to tell them I love them and also if we could get pizza tonight, I would love them so much more."    
  
Hercules nodded, only half processing everything he just said. "Okay, I'll tell them."    
  
"Thank you." He grabbed his tie and bag and ran out, shutting the door behind him.    
  
Less than a second later, Lafayette came down, picking up Alex's left behind granola bar and eating it without hesitation. Hercules watched, amused, for them to notice him. John turned back to Hercules, trying to wrap his arms around him but ended up just throwing one arm into Hercules' lap and the other on the pillows behind him.   
  
"Oh, hello Hercules."    
  
"Hey. Alex just left for work, he told me to tell you-"   
  
"That he loves me and that we should get pizza tonight, I heard." They threw away the granola bar in the trash and explained, "I can't sleep without him next to me, so when he leaves our bed, it usually wakes me up too. I never tell him, thought, because if he knew I was up, he'd be  _ late _ ." They wiggled their eyebrows, providing a clear explanation as to what they mean.    
  
" _ Oh _ ," Hercules said, winking. Lafayette snorted.    
  
"What time is it?" John pushed up on the mattress so his face wasn't buried in it, hair tossed in every direction. He looked beautiful. Hercules kissed his forehead and laid back on the pull out couch bed, pulling John on top of him.    
  
"Too early to be awake," he replied. John sighed and nodded, relaxing on top of him. Hercules caught Lafayette smiling in the corner of his eye before turning and going back upstairs.    
  
"You're so warm," John told him, already falling asleep.    
  
"I love you."    
  
John kissed his collarbone. "Love you too."   
  
\---   
  
John liked Alex and Lafayette's house, but he had to admit their bathroom did seem like he stepped out of their house and into another one. Dim lighting and French decor  _ everywhere _ , fancy soap and a basket of bath bombs next to the soft rug by the bathtub. This was right from a sex scene in a movie, and John felt kind of removed from the rest of the house when he was in it. He washed his hands quickly and left, trying to reconnect with the idea of being in Lafayette and Alex's house, and then the physical evidence.   
  
"Where'd Hercules go?" Lafayette asked when John came went into their and Alex's room, not knowing what else to do in their house.    
  
"He went to get lunch and also buy new knitting stuff. I think he's planning to turn Alex into a grandmother, like him."    
  
"Aw, Alex would be so cute as a grandmother. With his big glasses and tiny, cold hands I think he could pull it off." They put their hand flat on their chest, like Alex does sometimes, right over where his ring was, or would be if Lafayette were wearing it.   
  
John climbed up on the bed next to them, looking at the laptop screen in front of them. They were going through pictures, stopped on one of Alex sitting across from them at a café, eyes shut with how wide he was smiling. His plate was empty but his glass was filled, a small pool of red wine at the bottom. The lights gleamed against his glasses, the night stretching down behind the awning of the restaurant.    
  
"Are these your pictures from Paris?" 

Lafayette nodded as the screen went from one picture of Alex to another, skipping from one of him asleep on the floor to another of him looking at Lafayette with one eye closed and the other open, peering through his engagement ring. One of Alex in front of the Eiffel Tower and then one of Alex completely naked kneeling in front of Lafayette's bedroom window, which they skipped over quickly, but John still noticed. They stopped at a picture of Alex and their grandmother talking as they walked down the street, sighing.    
  
"You  _ really  _ love Alex, don't you?"    
  
"Of course! Are you surprised?"    
  
"No!" John shouted. "No, just, when people go to Paris, usually there's more pictures  _ of  _ Paris."   
  
Lafayette shrugged. "I'm from Paris, I've seen it more times than I could count. Alex, on the other hand, is a view I'll never tire of," they explained. "No matter how many years I spend with him, I'll never think he's anything but stunning, he will never be as familiar as Paris to me, even now, when I know him like the back of my hand. He will always be something new to me, it will always feel like I'm getting to know him for the first time every time I'm with him."    
  
"Holy shit," John whispered.    
  
"I can't wait until we graduate, when we're done with school entirely and I get to take him  _ everywhere. _ He's  _ my  _ entire world; I'm going to show him  _ the  _ entire world. Whether that's before or after we get married, I'm not sure," the said to themself, trying to work it out.    
  
"That's  _ really  _ cute," John told them.    
  
"Thank you. How about you and Hercules? Have you talked about," they hesitated, "any future things?"    
  
John stuttered. "Not really. We know we don't want to break up, and that we love each other, but we really haven't talked about  _ marriage  _ or anything. Did you and Alex-"   
  
"Not until I proposed. Before that we knew we wanted to be with each other for the rest of our lives, but it wasn't really concrete until I asked him to marry me."   
  
John pulled the top blanket on the bed and covered himself with it. "I don't even know if Hercules wants that, though."    
  
"Yes, because Hercules is the type to love them and leave them, as his record shows," they said, deadpan, not even looking at him.    
  
John shoved them. "Shut up! Hercules wants to get married at some point, I know that, but I don't know if he wants to get married to  _ me _ ."    
  
Being married to Hercules, John thought, would be the best thing to ever happen to him. The thought of getting to wake up everyday next to Hercules and know he was John's husband, to be able to tell people that he was the person who got to marry the most wonderful person in the world, seemed surreal to him. To dream he would ever be that lucky seemed too out of reach.    
  
"Of course Hercules would want to marry you!" Lafayette squeaked. "He loves you so much."    
  
"I don't know." He sat up further. "We're really young, how do I know if he's even-"   
  
"Me and Alex are the same age as you two, and sometimes I catch Alex talking about floral arrangements in his sleep. I'm  _ engaged  _ to him. Just, think about it, would you? It's important to know, whether you plan to marry him in the future or not at all."   
  
John nodded. "Right. Right."  
  
A picture of Alex with the  _ most  _ dramatic eyeshadow passed by on the screen and Lafayette turned. "Can I do your makeup?"   
  
"Yeah, sure."   
  
\---   
  
Hercules heard John run down the stairs before he even got the door closed, carrying bags of yarn and Chinese food in both of his arms. He rushed to set them all on the counter before John crashed into him, squeezing his middle.    
  
"I missed you," John told him, muffled into Hercules jacket. Hercules turned so John face him.    
  
"I was gone for like two hours, babe."    
  
John pulled away and looked up. His eyelashes were too long to be real, sharp eyeliner and pink and gold eyeshadow. His eyebrows were done, arched in a way that could only be described as  _ architectural _ . John's already sharp cheekbones were contoured to look more dramatic, highlighter sparkling in the kitchen lights, pink matte lipstick that matched the eyeshadow coloring his lips.    
  
"You look really pretty," Hercules breathed. John smiled and leaned back.    
  
"Lafayette did my makeup. It's on their instagram I think."   
  
"I'll like it later. How long did this  _ take _ ?"   
  
"About an hour," he informed, looking down. "Hey, so I've been thinking, and...do you wanna marry me, maybe?"    
  
Hercules choked. " _ What _ ?"   
  
"Not now!" John shouted, moving away. "In the future."   
  
"Okay!" Hercules blurted, then covered his mouth with his hands.   
  
" _ What _ ?"   
  
Lafayette walked down the stairs, laptop in hand. "I was thinking about making a youtube channel for makeup tu-" They stopped. "Am I missing something?"   
  
"You'd marry me?" John asked, struggling to get the words out.    
  
Hercules nodded. "Of course I would. Not now, because we're college students and I have no money, like, at the fuck all, but yeah, in the future, of course! I love you."   
  
"I love you too."    
  
John ran to him again, tears soaking the front of his shirt. He balled up Hercules' jacket in his hands. Hercules wrapped his arms around John's shoulders, laughing. He pulled back and his makeup was still perfect, although there were gold sparkles embedded in Hercules' shirt.    
  
"What did y'all talk about when I was gone?"    
  
Before John could answer, Alex walked through the door, rushing.    
  
"I don't have much time, I'm here in between jobs! I just came to-!" He ran halfway up the stairs to kiss Lafayette and then ran back out.    
  
Lafayette sighed, smiling. "I'm going to marry that man."    
  
\---   
  
Alex came home from the restaurant he worked in hours later, in a dirty black polo shirt with an apron tied around his waist. Lafayette stood in front of the door waiting for him to come home, catching him as Alex threw his bag on the ground and collapsed in their arms.    
  
"How was newspapering?" They asked dragging him to the chair in the living room and falling into it. Alex curled on top of them.    
  
"It was really great! I love my job there so much and everyone is kind of nice and someone told me I could literally take over the company one day! It's so great, I even got done early. I wanted to come home and talk to you for a while, but we got stuck in traffic which is why I only got to kiss you before I had to leave again."    
  
Lafayette laughed. "That's okay. How was Arnold's?"   
  
Alex groaned so loud he was screaming. "I had to be helper today, and Dolley was one of the waitresses-"   
  
"I thought you liked Dolley."   
  
"I do! The problem was Peggy-"   
  
"Schuyler?"   
  
"No. Peggy was working today and she did absolutely  _ nothing _ . She basically made me do everything just because I was there, but I still had to be dishwasher so I really had no time, and it got so busy. Me and Dolley set the fucking toaster on fire  _ twice _ , and our manager got mad at us, but it's whatever. I've also been assigned matchmaker to Dolley to set her up with Angelica, so get ready for that."    
  
Lafayette furrowed their eyebrows. "I thought Dolley was dating Martha."   
  
"Well, we can burn those bridges when they lead us to water," Alex muttered, nuzzling into Lafayette's neck.    
  
"That one doesn't even make sense."   
  
"You don't make sense."   
  
Hercules and John watched with rapt fascination, enjoying how Lafayette and Alex talked to each other. They didn't understand one fucking thing Alex was saying, but Lafayette did, which Hercules thought was really cute. At this point, Hercules should just expect their relationship to be as sappy as it could be, because every time he didn't, they proved him wrong right away.    
  
Alex pushed off of Lafayette to go shower and change, gagging at the smell of dish soap and french fry grease on him.    
  
"What was all that about?" John asked, sitting up in Hercules' arms to face him.    
  
"My small fiancé has two jobs and  _ hates  _ one of them, but needs both because he insists on paying half the rent."    
  
Hercules squinted at them. "If you could, would you be his-"   
  
"Oh, absolutely. I would pay for everything he ever asked for if he'd let me." They fiddled with the threads of their collar. "But, sadly, he won't, so he's stuck in his restaurant job, for no reason, while also doing something he actually enjoys, which is good."    
  
Lafayette stood and went over to Alex's bag, rummaging through it until they pulled out his engagement ring, chain dangling from it. They stared at it as they ordered the pizza, getting into a silent argument with John, completely in exchanged glares, over whether or not they should get pineapple on it, which ended up in three pizzas being ordered, not that anyone was complaining.    
  
Alex rushed down twenty minutes after he went up, hair wrapped up in a towel and Lafayette's shirt hanging off one shoulder and shorts disappearing underneath the fabric. He didn't stop walking as he crashed into Lafayette, wrapping his arms around them.    
  
"I want to quit my job."   
  
"Then quit," Lafayette said, slung their arm around his shoulders and buried their hand in his hair.    
  
"You're not allowed to become my sugar daddy!" Alex shouted.    
  
Hercules took this moment in particular to reexamine his entire life, just for a second. When this became his life, he wasn't sure, and the uncertainty of how the rest of the weekend was going to play out struck more fear into Hercules' heart than he ever thought possible. John choked and muffled his laughter using Hercules' arm, face turning red where it wasn't dying on its boyfriend's shirt.   
  
"It'd be so  _ fun _ , though."    
  
" _ No _ ."   
  
"Fine." Lafayette spun Alex around and clasped Alex's ring back around his neck, kissing his neck as he took Alex's towel and unwound his hair from it. Hercules could  _ see  _ the love radiating from the both of them.    
  
That night, after they ate three whole pizzas  _ by themselves _ , Hercules thought that maybe staying with Lafayette and Alex wasn't as bad as he thought it'd be. He might not have wanted his life to happen this way, but he's glad it did, as John cuddled into his side, makeup still on, in a small food coma from the sheer mass of the cheese and pineapple combo he just inhaled.    
  
He was going to marry him some day. 

**Author's Note:**

> i always feel like hercules feels like a boring character, not to me, bc he's based off of me, and that causes an inordinate amount of worry
> 
> tumblr: lol-phan-af


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